1. Field of Invention
This invention relates to disposable single use elastomeric gloves for protection of infusion devices inserted in human hands and arms against water. The purpose of said gloves is to keep said hands and arms dry while patients wash or take baths or showers.
2. Description of Prior Art
The idea of protecting a human limb against water has been around for a long time, and a plurality of contraptions serving this purpose have been invented. The common goal of all such devices is to alleviate a process of washing for patients, who for any reasons should keep their limbs dry. Most noticeably such necessity might occur when a person has a bandage or a cast over an injury or when an intravenous infusion device is inserted in a person's limb.
The majority of such devices present various sheaths and sleeves, which can be pulled on human limbs and closed tightly or sealed around said limbs at open ends. However quite different ideas has also been patented, among which the most notable is one described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,336,204. This invention suggests that the IV-insertion site be covered locally by a rigid plastic cap, providing both protection against water and accidental dislodging. With all its ingenuity, however, this contraption appears to be labor intensive in installation and too expensive to serve as a disposable single use article.
Plastic (PVC, polyethylene, etc.) sheaths and sleeves with sealing means, comprising fasteners, bandages, sealant layers and straps, are plentiful and some of such devices have found their way to the present U.S. market. U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,911,151; 4,562,834; 5,605,534; 5,643,183; 6,210,352; 5,720,713; 5,395,302; 5,592,953 present incomplete list of related devices. Among these devices only one, exposed by U.S. Pat. No. 4,911,151, is explicitly defined as disposable. These contraptions, while providing good protection for IV-lines and other sites on human limbs intended to be kept dry, are rather complex in use and overly expensive in production, which prevents them from being commonly used.
The most noteworthy inventions in the field of protection of IV-sites and injuries of human limbs are thin walled elastomeric sheathes and sleeves, which allow very inexpensive production by means of dip molding technology, thereby having the advantage of being single use articles. U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,728,052; 6,276,364; 4,346,699 along with some others constitute this group. The invention of U.S. Pat. No. 6,276,364 is of much interest, as it combines good protection against water with ease of donning and potential disposability. However, this device demands technology, which hitherto has not been well developed, wherefore it cannot be produced in quantities. U.S. Pat. No. 4,346,699 probably deserves the most interest. This invention is simple and inexpensive in production and easy in use. Its only deficiency is the lack of comfort for a patient, for this device does not allow use of fingers, when it is donned on a human hand.
The last group of related inventions, reflected by U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,884,300; 4,845,780, contains elastomeric gloves with means of securing cuffs of said gloves around wrists or arms. These devices, however, cannot be used for keeping dry IV-sites on human hands and arms for the following reasons: (1) the prescribed methods of securing cuffs, while serving the purpose of holding gloves in place, do not provide waterproof seals; (2) gloves in question do not provide any room or space for IV-catheters with infusion plugs and means or securing said catheters; (3) they do not provide for the case when an IV-line is attached to a mid or upper forearm.
The protective gloves proposed herein combine all the advantages of devices existing heretofore, while being free of aforementioned deficiencies. The gloves of this invention (1) render waterproof seals around arms on which they are donned; (2) provide ample space for IV-catheters along with infusion plugs and fixtures; (3) furnish sufficient comfort and ease of use of hands; (4) they are easy to don and strip off without external help; (5) several versions of gloves with overlapping features, proposed herein, jointly offer protection for various cases of IV-catheter insertion—in hands and in forearms; (6) manufacturing of proposed protective gloves employs standard dip molding technology, whereby they are inexpensive to produce and therefore disposable.